Dr. Mitchell Lazar is the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Genetics, the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, and the Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Lazar received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then received a PhD in Neurosciences and an MD from Stanford University. He trained in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and in Endocrinology at the Massachusetts General Hospital before joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1989.

Dr. Lazar's research focus is on the epigenomic regulation of gene expression and metabolism. He is particularly interested in nuclear receptors, which are master regulators of metabolism. He discovered the heme receptor Rev-erbα and the epigenomic mechanisms by which it represses gene transcription to control circadian and metabolic physiology. He has also made seminal findings related to the role of PPARγ in obesity and diabetes, including the discovery of the hormone called resistin.

Dr. Lazar has given named lectures throughout the world. He has served as Associate Editor of Diabetes, and as a member of the Board of Scientific Councilors of the National Institutes of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases, and is currently on the editorial boards of Genes & Development, Cell Metabolism, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Endocrine Reviews, JCI, and Science.

Dr. Lazar has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and has received two NIH Merit Awards, the Van Meter Award of the American Thyroid Association, the BMS Freedom to Discover Award, the Richard Weitzman Award and the Edwin B. Astwood Award Lecture from The Endocrine Society, and the Stanley Korsmeyer Award of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.